Aldobionamides and compositions containing aldobionamides are known in the art, for example, from applicants' copending application, U.S. Ser. No. 07/981,737 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,279.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,279 to Au et al. describes binary active detergent active compositions in which nonionic aldobionamides are used in combination with anionic surfactants (e.g., linear alkybenzene sulfonates or LAS) instead of combinations of LAS and the high alkoxylated nonionic surfactants (e.g., Neodol 25-7, a nonionic surfactant from Shell having a C.sub.12 -C.sub.15 alkyl group and alkoxylated with average seven alkylene oxide groups). That is, U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,279 compares LAS/Aldobionamide surfactant system relative to LAS/high EO nonionic systems.
The examples in Au et al. show that aldobionamides could perform at par or better than the highly alkoxylated nonionic surfactants one normally would use in a binary surfactant system and thus could be used as a replacement for such highly alkoxylated surfactants.
There is, however, no teaching or suggestion in Au et al. that the aldobionamides could be used as replacements for low alkoxylated nonionic surfactants (i.e., having average degree of alkoxylation from 1 to 5) in surfactant systems comprising such low EO nonionics; and, in fact, their successful use as replacement for high alkoxylated nonionic surfactants teaches away from the use as low alkoxylated nonionic replacer.